New Delhi, Feb 3 (KNN) Inaugurating CriSidEx, a sentiment index for micro and small enterprises (MSEs) developed jointly by CRISIL and SIDBI, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises are to help Indian economy ride towards growth.

Jaitley further said that the economy is witnessing a phase of consolidation after a series of structural reforms over the last two years.

"The consolidation will be led by the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector", Jaitley added.
Speaking at the event, Ashu Suyash, managing director & CEO, CRISIL Ltd said that with the budget making special case for MSMEs, the growth is likely to pick up.

Officials from the MSME department including MSMEs secretary Arun Kumar Panda, Rajiv Kumar, secretary in the department of financial services and Subhash Chandra Garg, secretary, department of economic affairs were also present at the event.

CriSidEx is a composite index based on a diffusion index of 8 parameters, and measures MSE business sentiment on a scale of 0 (extremely negative) to 200 (extremely positive).

The first report based on the index was launched on today. It captured qualitative responses of 1,100 MSEs, out of which 550 were manufacturing units and the other 550 services units.

According to the report, the first reading of CriSidEx stood at 107, indicating mildly positive sentiment during October-December during which the survey was conducted. It further captured the sentiment for the next quarter (January-March 2018). (KNN/DA)